


Watering

by bladespark



Series: Uncanny Flower (Thanatos, Achilles, and Patroclus) [2]
Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Bottom Achilles (Hades Video Game), Consetacles, Eldritch, Eldritch Thanatos, Intersex Achilles, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Nereid Achilles, Nereids (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Sleepy Cuddles, Tentacles, The Eldritch Chthonics, Top Thanatos (Hades Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 13:20:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30039297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bladespark/pseuds/bladespark
Summary: Achilles and Thanatos have long bonded over being other than human. Now that they're lovers, though, Thanatos' eldritch nature has all-new potential. Achilles never considered himself into that kind of thing, but it turns out that being overwhelmed by a lover who can be endlessly fluid is an experience he more than enjoys.Or, weird tentacle sex fun times!
Relationships: Achilles/Thanatos (Hades Video Game)
Series: Uncanny Flower (Thanatos, Achilles, and Patroclus) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2203800
Comments: 13
Kudos: 29





	Watering

Achilles rested at the bottom of the pool, watching the way candlelight was thrown and distorted by the rippling surface above.

The water was blood-warm, for this was one of the soaking pools in the House of Hades, rather than a natural body of water. There were several, here in the bathing room, but Achilles had the whole place to himself just now. The House didn’t have that many inhabitants, if you didn’t count the disembodied, and many of those inhabitants had their own private bathes, so Achilles often got the chance to bathe alone.

He appreciated that, because it meant he didn’t have to worry about the reactions he always used to get when mortals saw what happened to him in water.

He was half Nereid, of the sea, and just now he looked it.

Mostly human, still. Nereids themselves looked mostly human, and Achilles was only half-blooded. But his skin, though as warm a golden tone as ever, was now covered completely in very fine scales. His hands were webbed between the fingers, the nails more like claws. His toes were a little longer, and webbed as well. His ears were sharply pointed, his teeth pointed too, and his eyes green instead of blue. Just now they were covered with a thin, barely visible membrane, that blurred his vision a little, but kept the water from stinging him as he stared up at the dark ceiling above.

Eventually, after much longer than anyone human could have waited, he rose to the surface and blew out the breath he’d held, drawing in a new one. He was about to duck under again, to retreat to the peace of the water, when he heard the creak of the door opening.

Achilles tensed, then relaxed on seeing in was Thanatos. He’d seen Achilles like this before, now and then, and given his own nature he certainly wasn’t going to stare or make comments about somebody looking other than human.

Thanatos halted just inside the door. “Achilles. I can go, if you don’t want company.”

“No, please, come in. Truthfully, there’s no one else I’d rather see just now.”

Thanatos smiled. “Oh? Is there any particular reason for that?”

Achilles, floating on his back and sculling gently to keep his head up, snorted. “Oh, I suppose at the moment I mostly want to complain about our Prince to someone who knows how he is. Though I hear you and he are getting along well these days.”

Thanatos’ smile didn’t fade one bit, in fact it grew a little wider, but his cheeks flushed bright gold. “You could say that, yes. And you were right, you know. About how he is. About how I didn’t need to worry, he’d be happy to show me what to do. It’s been very good. When he’s not driving me mad, of course.”

“Exactly.”

Thanatos started disrobing, dropping bits of clothing and armor on a bench against the way. “So, what is he doing to drive you mad?”

“Offering me too much hope, perhaps,” said Achilles, laying back in the water and looking up at the ceiling again. “Offering me ruination, maybe. I don’t know. He…has been speaking with Patroclus. More than speaking, I suspect, given their inclinations! But he keeps bringing me messages. And I know what he’s done for Orpheus. I know what he wishes to do for me. If Lord Hades should be angry, though… My service, and my ban from Elysium has bought my Patroclus peace there. Risking that is nearly unthinkable. So I have been trying not to think of it.”

“Ah. I see. Yes, he does these things, all heedless. Did you know he’d also freed Sisyphus? I’ll admit my first instinct on hearing that was to fling him into the Styx myself.”

Achilles winced. He didn’t know the details of what exactly Sisyphus had done to Thanatos, other than having tricked him somehow, but he knew it had something to do with the ruination of his right hand, which he was even now baring as he stripped, pulling off the gauntlet he would only remove in the presence of a tiny number of trusted people. Achilles was lucky enough to be among those. The hand beneath was skeletal, stripped of flesh, but it hadn’t always been that way.

“It’s like having a very friendly puppy,” said Achilles. “A wonderful, happy, loving thing, and yet without a lick of sense or restraint.”

Thanatos actually laughed as he climbed down into the water, choosing the same pool Achilles was already in. “Yes it is. But I’m glad of him all the same. Things are going very well between us, even if I also occasionally want to throw him off a balcony.”

“I’m glad for you.” Achilles pivoted gracefully in the water, letting his feet touch the bottom. This was the deepest of the pools, deep enough he was chest-deep in it standing, where the other two were barely past knee deep. He watched Thanatos draw up his feet and let himself float, wondering how that compared with floating in air as he so often did.

They both rested in silence for a long time. Eventually Achilles sank back under the water again, letting the womb-warmth of it envelop him. When he rose and drew breath, he found Thanatos nearly close enough to touch. He looked over at the god of death, indulging an idle curiosity. “Could you stay under water yourself? Do you need to breathe?”

Thanatos shrugged. “There are human-like urges that come with a human-like form. I don’t _need_ to, but it’s hard, unless I revert to my primordial shape.”

“Huh. I suppose that makes a certain kind of sense.” Achilles had the urge to reach out, to touch. Thanatos was so fascinating. He was handsome—beautiful even—in this form, and the other was uncanny, yes, but had its own strange grace.

Thanatos smiled. “I don’t swim that way much, though. I don’t like getting my wings wet.”

“They’re beautiful, you know,” said Achilles. “I don’t know why you don’t like showing them.”

“Ah…” Thanatos flushed. “You remember, surely, when I was smaller? Nyx would chastise me about scaring the shades, and Meg always teased me.” He gave a shrug. “I learned showing anything Chthonic just wasn’t done.”

“I think that’s absurd, frankly,” said Achilles with a frown, “but I can understand. I avoided water for a long time after a few childhood incidents. But it lured me back eventually.”

“Yes.” Thanatos nodded. “It’s so much more comfortable in some ways. Yet it’s hard to relax and let go enough, most of the time.”

“You know I don’t mind. I never have,” said Achilles gently. He cleared his throat and added, “To be honest, it’s…interesting.”

Thanatos blinked at Achilles in surprise. “Interesting. Interesting how? Because you say that like, ah…”

Achilles felt his cheeks heating, but nodded. “I can’t help but think what it would be like if you…took me like that. You said, that first time, that you had experience with, ah, sexual things in that form.”

“Oh. Yes, but…” Thanatos frowned. “Hmm.”

“It’s an idle thought, you don’t have to read too much into it,” said Achilles, still flushed.

Thanatos tilted his head thoughtfully, and narrowed his eyes. Then he smiled suddenly, a certain hungry intensity in his gaze. “You would enjoy it, though, if I took you?”

“Ah… I… Well, I don’t know, since I never, I mean, the idea is, uhm…” Achilles knew he was babbling like an idiot, but having Thanatos suggest he might actually do it had derailed his thoughts quite thoroughly.

Thanatos chuckled. “Well then.” He ducked under the water, swam over to the edge of the pool, and hauled himself out onto the tiles there. Then he padded over to the doors, and with a swift flick of the latch locked them. Next, as Achilles watched in fascination, he seemed to pull a shadow around himself from nowhere, that began to unfold into countless dark-feathered wings. At first he was nearly spherical, a shapeless mass of black feathers, gray-skinned limbs, and miscellaneous eyes, but then he flowed into a more upright, vaguely humanoid shape, a head appearing, raven-beaked and with three unblinking golden eyes.

He stalked back to the pool on raven’s feet, and when he neared the edge he beckoned with one hand, the right one, still skeletal but tipped with black claws now. “Come here.” Thanatos’ voice was recognizably his, and yet different, full of metallic echoes.

Achilles felt a pleasant shiver go down his spine. He pushed off the floor and swam forward swiftly.

“Up out of the water,” ordered Thanatos. His beak parted in what might be a smile, showing it was lined with sharp ivory teeth. “Wouldn’t want to get my wings wet.”

“Yes, my Lord Thanatos,” said Achilles, and boosted himself out of the pool to kneel at the edge. He didn’t bother to stand, he suspected he’d be ordered right back to his knees if he did.

Thanatos reached out, cupping Achilles’ chin in the hard-edged grasp of his hand and tilted his head up so that he was looking into the three eyes framing Thanatos’ beak. “I will use you, pleasure you, do things I know you want and can’t find words for, but you must promise to tell me if I make you uncomfortable,” he said.

Achilles drew in a sharp breath. “Y-yes my Lord Thanatos.”

“Good boy.” Thanatos laughed, or at least he probably did, the sound an alien scraping of metal on metal. Achilles shivered again. Thanatos slid his hand around Achilles’ head, the claws working through his hair, gripping it and holding him in place. His other hand, clawed too, but covered with black scales, stroked over Achilles’ skin, feeling the fine, soft scales he himself had. They would start vanishing soon as he dried off, now that he was out of the water, but for now they, and his other Nereid traits, remained.

“A handsome boy,” said Thanatos, his strange voice warm, despite its echoes. “Who will let me have my way with him. A treasure, truly.” A tendril of self, a grayish tentacle, snaked out and joined Thanatos’ hand in caressing Achilles. It slid over his body, exploring in a way that felt profoundly different from the touch of hands, clawed or not. Achilles swallowed hard, feeling a pulse of arousal at how helpless he was before this go through him.

The tentacle slithered up to his face, traced its tip over his lips an an exploratory caress. Thanatos said, “Open for me.”

Achilles opened his mouth, and couldn’t help the soft moan that came from him as Thanatos pushed the tentacle between his lips.

It tasted of incense and flowers, bitter but pleasant. Achilles tongued at it, moaned again as it twisted with his tongue, and finally closed his lips around it and sucked on it, another wave of desire running through him. Thanatos made a breathy sound of obvious pleasure as Achilles sucked, which only added to Achilles’ own enjoyment.

He realized he’d closed his eyes when the touch of another tentacle startled him. The brush of feathers followed it, and when he opened his eyes he saw that Thanatos had moved closer, enclosing Achilles in one of his many pairs of wings. Thanatos’ one hand still held Achilles’ hair, keeping him still. The other came to rest on his waist, simply holding him, but more of the strange tentacles were unfurling from Thanatos to curl and explore over Achilles’ body. One of them found its way over his cock, making him moan loudly around the one still in his mouth.

Achilles let his eyes close again, focusing on sensation. It was intense, as touch after touch crawled over him, tentacles snaking and exploring everywhere. The one caressing his cock soon enveloped it completely and began a slow stroking, wringing repeated moans from Achilles. Before long, though, one tentacle inevitably found its way beneath Achilles’ cock, to the slit there. Achilles shuddered, going tense, his first instinct to clamp his legs together, to resist it. He blew a breath out his nose and relaxed instead, setting his knees a little wider apart, sinking back on his heels, making room for it.

“Good boy,” murmured Thanatos, his voice nearly in Achilles’ ear. The feel of his feathers closed more tightly around Achilles, even as the tentacles wound tighter too. Achilles felt completely enveloped, enclosed by Thanatos, filled by him as the tentacle pushed deeper within, until it could go no further. Another threaded around one wrist, and pulled it behind him. The other wrist followed, the tentacles joining together into a single cool, firm band binding his hands behind his back.

The tip of one pushed against his backside a moment later, making him gasp, and soon he’d been filled there too. Indeed, the tentacle pushed in there to the point of pain, until he was whimpering and squirming, before relenting and retreating just enough to no longer hurt.

Yet another wreathed around his neck, giving a pulse that made Achilles tremble. He’d already known he was helpless, but he keenly felt exactly how little he could do now. Wings enfolded him on all sides, tentacles pinning him, filling him, and Thanatos had both hands cradling his head now, twisted in his hair, holding him. He felt swallowed up in otherness, tethered to reality solely by the feel of hard tiles beneath his knees.

Thanatos hummed softly, a musical, resonant thing. “You’re mine now,” he whispered in Achilles’ ear. “Mine utterly. But don’t worry, I’ll be gentle with you as I use you.”

Achilles whimpered helplessly. His whimper turned to a moan as a pulse ran through the tentacles within him, an increase in pressure that made him feel even more full. The tentacle that had been twined around his cock all this time stroked along him too. The pulse was repeated, a slow pushing within, a long, leisurely stroke outside, and then again, and again, swifter each time, as it settled into a rhythm. Achilles found himself jerking his hips in time with it, as if trying to thrust into the grip on his cock, or push further onto the tentacles filling him. It had little effect, but he couldn’t help himself.

“Don’t hold back,” said Thanatos. The sharp point of his beak closed over Achilles’ ear, nipping there. Achilles gasped, hips still bucking, completely overwhelmed. The world didn’t exist, only Thanatos did, only what he was doing to Achilles. As pleasure built even the tethering feel of his knees on the tile seemed less immediate. He was floating, as profoundly as ever in the ocean, and his orgasm was rising like the tide. It washed over him suddenly, wringing a choked cry from him, his back arching, whole body tensed and shuddering as he came hard.

The pulses continued, pushing him through it, wringing every possible bit of pleasure, every drop of seed from him.

Finally, when the wave of it had passed, Achilles went limp, slumping. Thanatos released his ear, but his tentacles let go more slowly, the ones binding him shifting to cradle and support him instead, the ones within him withdrawing gradually. The hands gripping his hair shifted to stroking, claws carding delicately through the still-wet strands. Achilles let himself relax into it, sighing, feeling wonderful.

The wings around him folded back in to Thanatos’ body, and Achilles finally blinked his eyes open, finding Thanatos’ beaked face close to his. Thanatos nuzzled his beak against Achilles’ cheek. “Feeling good?”

“Mmm. Yes. Thank you, my Lord.”

Thanatos chuckled. “You’re quite welcome.”

He continued his soft caress, and Achilles hummed and leaned into it. After some time, though, Achilles had a thought. “That was very good for me, but did it do anything for you?”

A pair of wings gave a shrug. “I enjoyed doing it.”

“I see.” Achilles frowned. It felt wrong to let a partner go unpleasured, especially after something as wonderful as what he’d just experienced. “Can I do anything for you, then, my Lord?”

Another wing shrug. “It doesn’t seem likely. You’re not Chthonic yourself. You probably couldn’t interact with my core even if you were willing to touch it.”

“Your…core?”

Thanatos waved a clawed hand vaguely. “Another Chthonic god, a proper one, descended of Chaos, not like Hades or Zagreus, could reach inside and touch my center, and continuing to do this is pleasurable in a way that leads to a burst of energy. It’s not precisely sexual, but there are strong parallels.”

“I see. I guess I can’t just reach through you.”

Thanatos chuckled at that. “Oh, that part you could do. I don’t mean in some special way, I mean quite literally.”

Achilles tried to think that through. “Literally reach inside you?”

“This form is quite malleable. It can be soft enough for you to part like clay, if I wish.”

“Huh.” That sounded extremely strange, but it wasn’t as though Achilles hadn’t seen what was inside quite a large number of mortals, in a much less pleasant way. Touching the inside of a god would no doubt be odd, but if it was something that could give Thanatos pleasure…

“I don’t think anything could come of it, though.”

“I’d be more than willing to try, my Lord.”

Thanatos cocked his head to the side, a very bird-like gesture, and looked at Achilles. “You wouldn’t find that too strange?”

Achilles cleared his throat. “After what we just did?”

Thanatos laughed. “True. Very well, if you wish to try, you are quite welcome.” He pulled himself into a more compact shape, or perhaps merely sat down, growing shorter, and lifted his head. He patted himself with one hand, more or less where his chest would be if he were more humanoid, and several wings shifted aside to show a patch of bare, grayish skin, a lone eye peering at Achilles from beside it. “Here. Simply push your fingers here. If you manage to touch any of my energy, I will let you know, but I expect nothing much. I’ve never had anyone but another Chthonic try this, though, so who knows?”

Achilles nodded, still on his knees, which were growing sore by now, but he disregarded that for the time being, and instead reached forward, touching the cool smoothness of Thanatos’ skin. When he pushed on it, it did feel soft, and parted easily before his fingers.

It felt strange, to sink his hand slowly inside Thanatos, the cool, dry flesh parting, allowing his hand in. He’d half expected to break through the skin, be surrounded with the god’s ichor, but apparently that wasn’t how this worked. It was indeed very like soft clay, requiring a little effort, but more elastic, for it closed in behind him, pressing snug around his wrist once his hand was fully enveloped.

“Is that okay, my Lord?” he asked.

“Yes.” Thanatos put his hand on Achilles’ head, stroking slowly over his hair as Achilles worked his own hand deeper. Achilles found himself leaning forward, resting his forehead on one of the smaller wings that were tucked in above the place where his hand was slowly pushing in. Thanatos made a soft, trilling, humming sound, something warm and relaxed. Achilles had pushed in to halfway along his forearm now, and was finding the cool pressure of Thanatos around him anything but unpleasant. It wasn’t remotely sexual, but it was fascinatingly strange, and he felt a certain warmth to be trusted to try such an odd intimacy, even if it was likely doomed to failure.

He pushed a little deeper still, working steadily, not in any rush, but wanting to give this a proper effort. When Achilles was almost to the elbow, though, he felt something odd, a sort of tingle against his fingertips.

“Oh!” Thanatos gasped in shock. “Oh, I can feel you!”

“I feel something too,” said Achilles, eyes widening. He pushed further in, the tingling creeping up his hand as he did. Thanatos moaned, his whole body shuddering.

“F-fuck. Oh, gods, Achilles…”

Obviously the pleasant tingle Achilles felt was nothing compared to what was making Thanatos moan and clutch at him. Both hands were on Achilles now, one tangled in his hair, the other gripping his shoulder, and there were tentacles winding all around him again. Achilles pushed a little further in, and felt the tingle become an almost solid thing. A sphere of effervescence, pushing against his hand. He curled his fingers around it, and heard Thanatos gasp, then whine needily.

“Oh… Do that. That’s so… Yes, please!”

Achilles felt pleasure shiver through him at how much Thanatos was obviously enjoying what he was doing, and squeezed the strange, fizzing, sparking thing in his hand harder.

“Ah!” Thanatos convulsed against him, wings spreading out, then folding around Achilles in a curtain of black feathers. “Oh gods!”

“My Lord,” murmured Achilles, trying a gentle, pulsing pressure, and being rewarded with a long, wordless moan. He continued that, settling into a rhythm, and the way Thanatos wrapped his arms—and wings and tentacles too—around Achilles suggested it was the right thing to do.

“Oh… Oh, yes… Oh!” Thanatos’ hands clutched tightly at Achilles, claws digging in. Achilles made a soft sound of pleasure and pain, halfway to a moan, and continued to squeeze around Thanatos’ core in a steady, pulsing rhythm.

Thanatos whined, clutching at Achilles, body tensed. Achilles felt the pressure around his arm and hand increase, almost painfully, but continued to slowly squeeze the strange, prickling, fizzing warmth of Thanatos’ core. 

“Yes, yes, oh, Achilles, _yes!_ ” gasped Thanatos, all his wings suddenly flaring open, and all at once Achilles felt an explosion of energy wash through him, warm and bright and nearly overwhelming. He felt his body trembling, the brightness of it not literal, his eyes were closed in any case, but something that went through every muscle and fiber of his being, making him shudder with a strange sort of bliss.

Thanatos seemed even more affected, though, writhing, curling around Achilles, tentacles and claws clinging to him as he squirmed and moaned and bucked in obvious ecstasy. Achilles wrapped his free arm around Thanatos, holding him as best he could, and squeezed again, one last time, then let go.

“Ahh…” Thanatos went limp, leaning on Achilles, his weight not unbearable, his body bird-light, his beak hooked over Achilles’ shoulder. Achilles lifted his free hand and stroked over Thanatos’ head, sighing in pleasure at having pleased his lord. As the light faded further, leaving only a faint tingling, Achilles pulled his hand back from within Thanatos, and once he’d freed it, wrapped it around his lord instead, holding him close.

Thanatos made a contented sound that was almost a purr, curling himself around Achilles. “Mmm. Good boy. Oh, you’ve been so good. That was amazing.”

“Yes…” Achilles leaned into Thanatos, feeling deeply satisfied, but also very worn out.

Thanatos made another trilling, purring sound, and wrapped his arms tight around Achilles. “Come with me,” he said.

“Yes, my Lord,” murmured Achilles.

There was a flash, and a brief lurch, and then Achilles was lying on something soft, with feathers and scales and tentacles still curled around him. The lighting was dim, but he managed to make out that it was a bedroom, so it must be Thanatos’ own. They were both lying in the bed together, Thanatos’ current form taking up nearly the whole of it. Achilles shifted, settling himself comfortably, and Thanatos let out another purring trill, stroking over Achilles lazily, all his many eyes closed. His beak nuzzled against Achilles’ cheek, and Achilles lifted his hand to stroke his fingers down it and over the soft, dense feathers that covered Thanatos’ head.

“Mrr. That’s so nice. Yes. You’re so good to me.” Thanatos’ voice was drowsy and slurred, as if he were nearly asleep.

“Thank you, my Lord,” said Achilles, relaxing with a sigh. “You’ve been good to me too.” A moment later a pleasant exhaustion dragged him down and he drifted easily to sleep in his lord’s strange embrace.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm working on the next segment of this, but it's not finished yet, so I don't know when it'll be up. Meanwhile if you haven't yet read my other stories, consider having a look, there's lots there!
> 
> Update: There is art of Eldritch Thanatos being all tentacle-y! [Check it out!](https://twitter.com/Valtalyn1/status/1371202239914774535)
> 
> If you'd like to see me talk about writing, my works in progress, other creative endeavors, and my life in general, check out [my Dreamwidth blog](https://bladespark.dreamwidth.org/) or my [twitter](https://twitter.com/bladespark). I also now run a [multiship, adults-only, kink-friendly Hades server](https://discord.gg/zSUcd9s5rt). Feel free to join!


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